United Nations E/C.12/2021/SR.5 Economic and Social Council Distr.: General 22 February 2021 Original: English Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Sixty-ninth session Summary record of the 5th meeting* Held via videoconference, on Wednesday, 17 February 2021, at 12.30 p.m. Central European Time Chair: Mr. Zerbini Ribeiro Leão Contents Consideration of reports (a) Reports submitted by States parties in accordance with articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant Seventh periodic report of Finland * No summary records were issued for the 2nd to 4th meetings. This record is subject to correction. Corrections should be set forth in a memorandum and also incorporated in a copy of the record. They should be sent within one week of the date of the present record to the Documents Management Section ([email protected]). Any corrected records of the public meetings of the Committee at this session will be reissued for technical reasons after the end of the session. GE.21-02222 (E) 190221 220221 E/C.12/2021/SR.5 The meeting was called to order at 12.35 p.m. Consideration of reports (a) Reports submitted by States parties in accordance with articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant Seventh periodic report of Finland (E/C.12/FIN/7; E/C.12/FIN/QPR/7) 1. At the invitation of the Chair, the delegation of Finland joined the meeting. 2. Ms. Oinonen (Finland) said that the promotion of human rights was a clear cross- cutting objective in the Government’s programme. The Government was currently preparing its third National Action Plan on Fundamental and Human Rights, which would focus on the development of monitoring. The practice of impact assessments for proposed legislation, with particular attention paid to human rights, was also being developed. 3. The Government had taken emergency measures in March 2020 to respond to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic; the state of emergency had been lifted in June 2020 following improvements in the epidemiological situation. The Government had introduced restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 and taken supportive measures to alleviate their economic consequences. The restrictions had been relatively successful – for example, authorities were not aware of any major outbreaks at housing units for persons with disabilities. Information on COVID-19 had been provided in many languages, including sign language, and in Braille. Public authorities had maintained dialogue during the pandemic with organizations of persons with disabilities and studied its impacts on the Roma population. To strengthen social security in the pandemic context, the amount that jobseekers could earn without losing any unemployment benefit had been increased and the right of self- employed persons to unemployment insurance had been expanded. 4. During the current Government’s term of office, the Non-Discrimination Act would be amended and a national action plan to combat racism and discrimination would be issued. The minimum age for the end of compulsory education would be raised to 18 years, student guidance and student welfare services would be improved and capacity-building efforts would ensure that comprehensive schools provided all students with the necessary skills for upper secondary education. 5. During the pandemic, the Government was striving to save existing jobs by providing support to companies and helping those who had lost their jobs to find new work. It was planning improvements to employment services, such as lifelong counselling and guidance, and would particularly target those in the weakest position on the labour market, including migrants, young persons and older persons. 6. To address gender inequality, the Government had pledged to introduce an equal pay programme and parental leave reform and to promote pay transparency; it had also produced an Action Plan for Gender Equality. It had prepared the country’s first national child strategy, with objectives including assessment of the impact of decisions on children, improved budgeting to take account of children, social inclusion of children and young persons and the mitigation of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on them. 7. Reforms were under way to overhaul legislation on social security, health care and social welfare, services for older persons and persons with disabilities, patient self- determination and gender recognition for transgender persons. A national Programme on Ageing 2030 had been adopted to ensure a socially and economically sustainable service system for older persons. The National Policy on Roma was intended to support the progress made with respect to the social integration of the Roma community and the safeguarding of their linguistic, cultural and social rights. 8. Finland had reported twice on its implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and been the first country in the world to include non-governmental representatives in the report drafting process. It had made progress on many objectives related to social sustainability, the economy and work. 2 GE.21-02222 E/C.12/2021/SR.5 9. Finally, the Government had set ambitious national climate targets and was working to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. The Climate Change Act would be amended with a view to strengthening its human rights aspects to guarantee that climate action would be fair and just. 10. Mr. Mancisidor de la Fuente (Country Rapporteur) said that he would like to know whether the emergency measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic had ended since the submission of the report. He would appreciate an overview of their impact on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights and of the measures taken to prevent discrimination against members of ethnic minorities, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in their application. He would be interested to hear what steps had been taken to share resources for vaccination with other countries and what the Government’s position was on use of the maximum flexibility permitted by the World Trade Organization to facilitate vaccination of the global population. 11. He wondered how the National Action Plan on Fundamental and Human Rights would incorporate economic, social and cultural rights on an equal footing with other human rights. He would appreciate an update on implementation of the National Action Plan for the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. He wished to have more information about the complaint mechanisms, required under the Guiding Principles, for persons whose human rights had been violated by multinational corporations, including citizens of non-European Union countries. 12. He would like to know whether the delegation included a representative of the Sami Parliament and, if not, whether the Government agreed that the current review was a missed opportunity to include the Parliament in aspects of international relations pertaining to its competencies. He would appreciate an explanation of the authorities’ obligation to negotiate with the Sami people and, specifically, how negotiations differed from consultations. He would like to know the Government’s position on the criticisms expressed by the Sami Parliament in the periodic report (E/C.12/FIN/7) and the measures that would be adopted to address them. 13. He would be interested to hear about any cases in which the Covenant had been invoked as the basis for a decision in the national courts. He wished to be given specific examples of the activities of the national human rights institution related to economic, social and cultural rights. Lastly, he would like to know how the Government planned to meet its commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of gross national income on development assistance, given that almost no increase was foreseen in the spending plans up to 2023. The meeting was suspended at 1.10 p.m. and resumed at 1.15 p.m. 14. Ms. Oinonen (Finland) said that, although infrequently invoked by the Courts, the Covenant and the rights it enshrined were reflected in numerous laws, regulations and policies. International human rights treaties to which Finland was a party had binding force in domestic law. Nevertheless, the adoption and the implementation of an international treaty must be approved and detailed in separate legislative acts. As a result, the courts naturally invoked domestic laws more readily than the treaties from which those laws derived. In their judgments, however, courts were obliged to take into account the obligations of Finland under international human rights treaties. 15. In respect of the official development assistance target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income, the Government had spent €989 million, or 0.41 per cent of gross national income, on development cooperation in 2019. In line with the budgets for 2020 and 2021 and the spending limits decided for the period 2021–2024, development cooperation appropriations as a percentage of gross national income were: 0.46 per cent in 2020; 0.52 per cent in 2021; 0.49 per cent in 2022 and 2023 and 0.48 per cent in 2024. 16. Following its declaration of a state of emergency on 16 March 2020 in relation to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Government had taken a number of measures to curb the spread of the disease and to protect groups of at-risk persons. The parliament had closely and transparently monitored implementation of the measures and of the Emergency Powers Act. None of the measures restricting rights had been adopted with a view to derogating from the State’s obligations under the European Union and international GE.21-02222 3 E/C.12/2021/SR.5 human rights treaties, but rather because they had been deemed necessary, justified, proportionate and limited in time, and had served to protect other fundamental rights. 17. Mr. Pohjola (Finland), noting that the emergency measures taken by Finland had been moderate as compared to those taken by other States, including in the European Union, said that the Government had sought to ensure that the Finnish people could continue to work and access essential services during the pandemic.